til eternity - t - bonnie/damon - chapter two [b]
title: you know I will adore you ('til eternity)
category: the vampire diaries
genre: friendship/romance/drama/humor
ship: damon/bonnie
chapter rating: teen/pg-13
overall rating: explicit/nc-17
word count: 7,524
summary: "Run all you want, but it won't change anything, Bonnie. It doesn't matter what world we're in, you'll always be my wife." After being sucked up into what they assumed would be oblivion, Damon and Bonnie soon find themselves in an idyllic little town where they're free to find peace. Which is exactly what they have for fifteen years, until reality comes calling to bring them home.
[return.]
…
Bonnie frowned as she stepped out of the back storage room of her store to find Kayla sweeping the floor. Closing and locking the door behind her, Bonnie carried the inventory book with her to the front till. "Hey," she said, offering a half smile when Kayla jumped, turning to see her. "Aren't you here a little early? You don't get off school for another hour…"
Kayla tugged her earbuds out and let them hang around her neck. "Oh, well, it was just Trig. I'm ahead in the homework anyway, so I figured I'd just come in early."
Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "Yeah… Do your parents know you're here?"
Shrugging, she turned her attention back to her sweeping, her long dark hair falling in waves and curls, pulled over one shoulder. "Did you hear Miss Cora was planning on bringing in some homemade honey for us to sell?" she asked, changing the subject. "She said her bees are producing more this year than usual. That'll be cool."
Bonnie watched her curiously. "You know you can talk to me right…? If something's going on at school or home, we can talk about it. Any time you want."
Kayla glanced back at her over her shoulder, one of her long silver earrings swinging. She had silver studs and hoops pierced all along the shell of her ear. "Yeah, I know."
"Okay." Bonnie cast her attention back down to her books, even as she tracked Kayla's movements around the room. She couldn't help but be reminded of Elena when she looked at Kayla, and it wasn't just the long, dark hair or the olive skin. It was the way Kayla moved, how she waited for the burden on her shoulders to get to be too much before she shared it. The difference was that Kayla wore her emotional turmoil in her dark clothes and her piercings where Elena always tried to fit in and follow the latest fashion trends, presenting a 'put together' appearance even when her life was falling apart at the seams.
Finally, after more than twenty minutes of aimlessly walking around the store or stocking shelves, Kayla made her way back to Bonnie, picking at her chipped, maroon nail polish. "Did you always know you wanted to open up a shop like this?"
"What do you mean?" Bonnie wondered, laying her pen down and sitting back on her stool.
"Well, you moved her from New York, right? So you grew up in the city…"
Bonnie shook her head. "I grew up in a small town, a lot like this one, actually."
"So you went to the city to get away from it but then moved back?" Kayla's brow furrowed. "Why?"
"Is that what you want to do?"
Kayla shrugged. "I don't know… I mostly just want to fit in. Kind of hard to do in a place like this."
"Why's that?"
"You ever just feel like you're completely different from everyone around you?" Kayla blew out a breath and shifted her feet. "I was always into weird things, I guess. I told my mom I was a witch when I was six. She told me I didn't know what it meant and that I was a princess." Rolling her eyes, she shook her head. "You know what sucks about princesses…? They're not dragons."
"And witches are?" Bonnie's mouth turned up in a smile.
"Witches are strong and powerful. If they want fire, they can make fire, you know? That's what I want."
Humming, Bonnie nodded. "Well, you see, your first problem is that you think a princess can't be a dragon. Anybody can be a dragon. It's all about how you think, not about what you are. If you want to be strong, confident, you want to be your own person, you have to think that about yourself, everybody else will just follow in your example." Shrugging, she said, "My Grams used to tell me I could be anything I wanted to be. So I am. I don't always make the right choices, but I try to. I didn't always speak up, but I do now. I didn't always feel like I fit in, so I made a place for myself. And you should too. Just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. You're not going to find yourself hidden somewhere else. You'll find you hidden in you."
Kayla half-smiled up at her. "So that's the big secret, huh? Accept yourself and fuck the rest."
"Maybe with less profanity, but… yeah. That's the secret."
Rolling her eyes, Kayla laughed under her breath, and reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "Okay. I guess I'll work on that… I've got a few years before I can hit the road anyway, right? Might as well figure out me while I'm at it."
"Sounds like a plan." Bonnie smiled. "Until then… How would you feel about stocking the vitamin section?"
"As long as it's not the foot odor remover, I'm your girl." Kayla walked off to the storage room with that and Bonnie smiled to herself. There was no guarantee their talk would fix anything, but she did like that Kayla saw her as someone she could trust. And it kind of felt good to dole out advice; she hadn't been able to do that in too long. A pang in her chest reminded her how much she missed Caroline and Elena, but she noticed it wasn't quite as strong as it had been more than a year ago. That was something, she guessed.
…
"I can't tell if you're being lazy or…" she trailed off.
Damon rolled his eyes. "Hey, reading happens to be one of my favorite pastimes."
"Okaaay…" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Then why are you getting me to read to you?" she wondered.
"Quid pro quo, Bon-Bon. You read, I rub."
Bonnie glanced down to her feet, currently perched in Damon's lap, and then back at the book in her own. "Fine. But only because I had a very long day…"
He waved a 'get on with it already' hand at her before focusing back on her feet.
Bonnie cracked the book open to the beginning and started to read. The book he'd picked was one they both had agreed on, seeing as she didn't feel like getting into anything so dense her brain would start leaking from her ears. She also didn't want anything full of sex, however, and she wouldn't put it past him to pick one exactly like that just to bug her. Instead, they ended up going with his favorite, The Call of the Wild. In part because she'd wanted to read it since finding out it was his favorite, once upon a time thinking it would give her a peek into Damon's head. After this long, her reason for wanting to read it had changed. She felt like she already knew him better than she'd ever expected to and didn't need any help in figuring him out. Still, it was his favorite for a reason and she wanted to see what the appeal was.
She made it through half a chapter before he interrupted her. "Anybody ever tell you that you have tiny feet?"
"Hey!" she exclaimed. "I have normal feet."
"Normal for an exceptionally tiny person. Look at them. They're doll-like…" He gave one of her toes a wiggle. "Then again, you're tiny, so it makes sense."
She opened her mouth to argue but he grinned at her and pointed.
"That, right there, that chin tilt, you do that to make yourself look taller, don't you?"
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "I do not," she scoffed.
But his smirk wouldn't let up and, despite wanting to brush him off, she was enjoying his foot rub, and perhaps even the book, too much to leave the room in a huff.
He rubbed his knuckles down the arch of her foot and seemed rather proud of himself when she wiggled in answer, squirming in her seat. "Admit you're tiny."
"No."
"Come on…" he cajoled. "You're what, five feet?"
"Five foot three," she said defensively.
His smirk only widened. "Tiny… little… bird," he said, tugging on a toe with each word before his hands swept up and circled her ankle, rubbing up the back of her calf, kneading as they went.
She bit her lip to keep an appreciative noise from leaving her throat and just watched him, looking far too satisfied with his deduction. She would give him that, if only because his hands were doing wonders for the pain of being on her feet all day. Just this once. He'd no doubt tease her about her short stature in the near future; she would put him in his place then. For now, she would get back to reading. She opened the book to where her thumb had kept her place and continued, all the while getting immersed both in the rhythmic feel of his hands and the intense book she read aloud.
…
Bonnie was mid-conversation with Carla when Damon's arm swept around her waist and pulled her backwards, into his chest. He swung her around so she was facing him and then began leading her around their back porch in a somewhat sloppy dance, one arm around her waist while the other raised her hand with his, linked together. His hair was messy, his smile was wide, his face was flushed, and his eyes were a little glazed.
"You're drunk," she said knowingly.
"Drunk, happy, same difference," he dismissed, giving her a little twirl.
She hooked her hand over his shoulder when she came to a stop. "And to think, you were the one who said he didn't want to have a barbecue…"
"I've come around to it." His eyes widened as he stared down at her. "Could be the beer, could be the burgers, who knows."
Bonnie snorted. "Yeah, or it could be that you're annoying our neighbor, and we both know how much joy you get out of pissing off Gladys."
He smirked then. "She is a crotchety old hag..."
"Damon," Bonnie admonished, pinching his shoulder.
"You know I'm right. I thought Tom was exaggerating, but she tries to bust me on everything. I took the garbage out last night, and she said I walked too loudly down the driveway." His eyebrows arched. "I'm a light walker, Bonnie. You don't spend a hundred and fifty years stalking prey and not learn how to walk lightly."
Folding her lips to keep her laughter hidden, she shook her head at him.
"What? What's that look?" he lowered their knotted hands and poked her cheek with his finger. "Are you laughing at me, Miss Bennett?"
She stared up at him, amused. "You know what you're doing?"
"Dancing?"
"Yes, that, horribly," she agreed. "But you're also making an archenemy out of our eighty year old neighbor…" She nodded. "You're so bored, you'll take anyone."
"One, she's seventy-eighty. Two, there aren't a whole lot to pick from, so sue me for settling. And three, don't defend her. She might not pick on you to your face, but she's not some kind old lady that evil Damon's making out to be the devil…" He frowned then, looking away darkly, his good mood rapidly fading. "Trust me."
"Hey," she said gently. When he wouldn't look at her, she slid her hand up his shoulder and squeezed the nape of his neck. "Damon."
Taking a deep breath, he adopted a smile and looked at her, dropping his face down so their foreheads were pressed together. "Do me a favor…"
"Within reason," she answered.
"Just dance with me, all right? We've got good tunes on, I've eaten my weight in red meat, the only people I like in this town are here, drinking all of my booze, and you… You look really pretty tonight, did I mention that?"
"You said something to that effect, yeah." She cocked her head. "I think you said 'hey, look at that, you do clean up nice.'"
"One of my better lines." His arm tightened around her waist and he danced them around in an oblong of a circle. "One song?"
"Two, if you're good."
He hummed, turning to rest his cheek against her hair. "I don't know how to be good."
Funny, she thought, that's what he'd been for quite some time now.
One song turned into two and then three before Naomi stole her away to talk shop and Damon soon found himself chatting with Brandon and Chris. The night wore on nicely, the barbecue eventually ending quite a bit later than anyone expected. Bonnie saw everybody out, hugging them goodbye and waving from the front door as they all told her they should do it again soon.
After Bonnie locked the front door, she found Damon in the back yard still, sitting in a patio chair, a beer in hand as he looked out over the yard, lit up with fairy lights strung along the fence.
Walking to him, she took a seat on the wooden arm of his chair and stole his beer for a small drag. "You have fun tonight?"
He hummed. "Not bad."
"Yeah?" She smiled down at him. "Are barbecues gonna be our thing? Barbecues and terrible karaoke."
"Speak for yourself, I'm awesome at karaoke," he said, reaching up to take back his beer.
"You're awesome at air-guitaring while I sing," she corrected.
"Every star needs an entourage." He tipped his beer back for a swig, his arm sliding around her waist. "I'm tired. We should clean up tomorrow."
"Sure," she agreed.
As he stood, he drew her up with him, keeping her close to his side as they stepped through the sliding glass door to the house. Moving down the hall to their bedroom, he said, "You know what?"
"Hm?"
"We should get a dog."
"Yeah?"
"A loud one."
Bonnie's mouth twitched. If this was how Damon wanted to play at still being 'bad,' she could live with it. "Sure. We'll look into that," she said, patting his chest comfortingly.
He might be a cute drunk, but they were not getting a dog.
…
"Hey! Say cheese!"
"What?" Damon looked over, confused, only to have a flash blur his vision. Blinking rapidly, he frowned. "Ow."
"Baby," Bonnie teased before plopping down beside him. In her hand, she was shaking a Polaroid picture and grinning at him. "I found it in the storage shed out back."
"And decided to blind me with it?" he snarked.
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "No… I'm gonna make a scrapbook. I used to make them when I was growing up. Me and Grams. I had one for me and Elena, me and Grams, me and dad… Now I can have one for me and you." Before he could snark at her, she handed him the picture she'd taken. It was a candid shot of him as he turned, but his mouth was turned up in an expectant smile as he looked up to meet her.
"Next time, shoot it from my good side."
"You have one?"
He smirked. "Ha. Ha."
Bonnie grinned at him and then scooted over on the couch and leaned her head in close to his. "Come on. This is your three second warning… Smile for the camera."
Damon put on an exaggerated grin, his brows hiked high, and all of his teeth on display. Bonnie elbowed him and it melted into something more genuine, which is when she hit the button to take the picture. When it popped out of the bottom of the old camera, Damon grabbed it before she could, giving it a shake. Slowly but surely, the picture began to show, and, he had to admit, they looked pretty good together. Happy and alive.
"Not bad, Bennett," he said, handing her the picture.
Standing from the couch, she replied, "Looks like you do have a good side." With that, she walked off down the hall, in the direction of her office, and he had to admit, he was kind of looking forward to seeing how their scrapbook turned out.
…
Bonnie would swear under penalty of death that she'd just seen Caroline Forbes, standing in the middle of the street.
In the middle of walking down the sidewalk with Damon, who had already finished his ice cream cone and was currently stealing bites off of Bonnie's, and all too regular occurrence, Bonnie had turned her head as her name was called. She spotted Annette across the street, a pretty Latina woman that, according to Naomi, had been working at the shop alongside them from day one. Annette was waving at her happily from where she walked in the opposite direction, holding the hand of her and Peter's son, four-year-old Jasper. Bonnie smiled in reply and raised her own hand to wave, which was when she saw Caroline simply materialize out of thin air. Blonde and pretty and so confused, standing in the middle of the street in a blue and white floral dress, eyes darting around but never quite landing on anything. Annette had already moved on, as if she hadn't seen it. In fact, nobody else seemed to find the current situation odd at all.
Bonnie stumbled to a stop, staring, slack-jawed, at Caroline. She whispered her name, choked and worried. Caroline wasn't quite corporeal; in fact, she was see-through, enough that Bonnie could clearly make out the store front across the road, but that didn't make her any less real. Bonnie lurched forward, the ice cream cone falling from her fingers, and before she could think better of it, she hurried toward the street. Saying her name, first in a whisper, and then louder, with more desperation, "Caroline… Caroline!" again and again, trying so desperately to catch her eye. But Caroline didn't hear her, didn't look at her, she just kept searching around, her mouth moving silently as she talked to… someone. No one. Not Bonnie, in any case.
A car horn screamed at her suddenly and Bonnie found herself yanked back toward the curb. She struggled for a moment, even as a car went screeching past, narrowly missing her, the driver shouting angrily through the window as he sped past. As soon as the car was gone, she found the street empty. No Caroline, corporeal or otherwise, to speak of.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" Damon demanded, his arms wrapped tight around her.
"She's gone. She's gone, but she was there! Didn't you see her?" Bonnie wiggled out of his grip and pushed herself up, scanning the street, looking everywhere for any sign of her best friend. Pushing her hands back over her head, flattening her hair, she felt her heart hammer in her chest, and bit her lip as her eyes burned. Turning to face Damon, she stared at him desperately. "Tell me you saw her."
He stared at her, his brow furrowed. "The only thing I saw was you walking off into the middle of the street!" He was angry; his lips were pursed and a muscle ticked in his jaw. "You nearly got yourself killed."
"It was Caroline," she choked out, a tear tripping down her cheek. "I saw her."
He shook his head. "There was no one there."
"No, I-I know it was her!" She turned back around, looking out over the street, her eyes darting back and forth frantically. "Damon, I saw her…"
"Bonnie-"
"I've been friends with her since first grade!" she exclaimed. "I can tell you who her first crush was, what her favorite color was in fourth grade, Jesus, what day of the week it was she started her period. I remember because she had a slumber party on a Wednesday night, specifically so she could eat junk food and not feel bad about it. So don't look at me like I'm crazy. I know Caroline, and that was her!"
He stared at her. "Okay."
"I did!" she cried, her shoulders trembling. It was her. It had to be!
Sighing, Damon reached for her, his hands on her arms, tugging her back until she was pressed to his chest. He rested his chin on top of her head. "Okay, I believe you," he said.
He didn't. She knew he didn't. But that didn't stop her from taking comfort from him. She leaned back, relaxing against him, and let his arms wrap around her, just holding her tight, while she stared out at the road, at where Caroline had stood. She wondered what it meant. What she wanted it to mean. She stared, hoping something might change, that Caroline might reappear, but she didn't. Minutes passed and there was nothing but the passing traffic and the setting sun.
"Let's go home," she said, her voice quiet, defeated.
"You sure?" he wondered, rubbing his hands up and down her arms.
"Yeah." She nodded, offering a faint, empty smile.
He turned them around and started them down the sidewalk, keeping his arm around her waist, pulling her against his side as they walked. She looked back once, her heart aching as she found the street empty.
She'd seen her, though.
She swore she did.
[Next: Chapter Three.]
author's note: so I planned for an 'update every week' kind of thing, but this is a day late all the same. it was finished, i just didn't have the time to edit it, so sorry for the wait. someone asked in a review if the town was isolated, so i hope this cleared that up for you. there will be a lot of questions concerning where they are and what it means that will be answered as time goes on, including after they eventually make it back to 'life.'
I'm really, really excited to see how many people reviewed. I wasn't sure how many people would like this storyline but I've had so much fun writing it. This is all fun and fluff right now, but things will take a turn when reality comes knocking. still, the fluff is tons of fun as their friendship fluctuates and the romance and intimacy grows.
thank you all so much for reading! please leave a review; they're very encouraging!
- lee | fina